Ted Lilly Joins Cubs Front Office

It's only been a couple of months since Ted Lilly decided that his pitching days were over and announced his retirement, but he didn't stay out of the game for long. The Cubs announced today, via press release, that Lilly will join their front office as a special assistant to president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer.

Per the release, Lilly will work with young players in Spring Training, visit the team's minor league affiliates over the course of the regular season, evaluate amateur players leading up to the draft and also perform professional scouting assignments.

Lilly spent parts of four seasons with the Cubs from 2007-10, posting a 3.70 ERA with 7.6 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 705 2/3 innings. At the time of his retirement, Lilly called his years with the Cubs the best of his career, noting how grateful he was to have had the opportunity to experience the postseason with a winning team in a "great city."

I always felt bad for Lilly; he took the 2007 playoff loss to the D-Backs really hard on himself. He had Chris Young down 1-2 with 2 outs and probably should have gotten out of the at-bat and inning unscathed with a 2-0 lead. 3 pitches later, watching his reaction as Young’s 3-run bomb left the yard was painful.

I always liked Ted Lilly. As a young pitcher with the Yankees, he had good K’s and many no-decisions that could have put him over .500 there. When he left the Bronx, I was happy to see him logging up wins, but holy moley, with that 47-34 record with Chicago, buy him a ticket to Cooperstown!